SOUTH HADLEY — It was a different kind of noise that filled the hallways of South Hadley High School on Monday.
The sounds of cans rattling in shopping carts and paper bags being folded mixed with the excited voices of more than 200 volunteers who walked the halls sorting donations as part of the seventh annual “Bag the Community” food drive.
“I’m just awestruck. It’s almost humbling,” said Karen Motyka, executive director of Neighbors Helping Neighbors Inc. “You feel so good to know that the whole community is ready to help those in need.”
The event brings students from the high school as well as Mount Holyoke College together with the larger South Hadley community to help fill the food pantry at Neighbors Helping Neighbors Inc.
Last year, the food pantry handed out 121,000 pounds of food, according to Motyka.
“We have a shoestring budget … the pantry is all volunteer, unpaid,” Motyka said. “It’s just the generosity of the community, the generosity of all the volunteers, the high school. It’s the whole community coming together for a day of service.”
The food drive provides about a third of the food the pantry needs for the entire year, according to Motyka.
“Our cupboards are bare right now. We just had the holidays, the winter is here. The need always seems to be greater in the winter months,” she said.
Helping at the final stage of sorting, Kevin Campbell said he and his sister, Eileen Campbell, have been volunteering with the food pantry for about two years.
The two adult siblings began volunteering after needing help themselves, Kevin Campbell said.
“We went down and got food and then we volunteered because we felt we had to give back,” Eileen Campbell said.
Kevin Campbell said at first they felt bad for using the pantry but the volunteers made them feel like family. Both Campbells said watching the community gather to support the pantry was great.
“It means a lot,” Kevin Campbell said. “South Hadley has always been a great town.”
The food drive serves two purposes, according to Susan Brouillette, a retired history teacher who helped create the event. Not only does “Bag the Community” provide much needed food, it also helps build community.
“It’s a real collection of people from all over South Hadley, all different ages. I love it. I completely love it,” Brouillette said. “They [students] get to see that they are in a generous community and that their neighbors care so it’s just a lot of good.”
On Saturday, around 6,000 bags were delivered to homes in the community along with lists of wanted food supplies. According to Brouillette, many people go shopping that weekend specifically for the event and thoughtfully put together bags of food, which were collected Monday.
“That is just shocking to me, the generosity,” Brouillette said. “It’s really remarkable.”
Seven years after the first community food drive, Brouillette said she didn’t think that it would turn into something as big as it has.
“Our motivation that year was that our food pantry was set to open and it didn’t have any food so there was a big motivation,” Brouillette said. “It was a very good success that year … after that, we thought maybe it was a fluke because people were committed to getting the pantry up and running.”
Standing near the cafeteria, watching high school students and volunteers walk past pushing carts full of food, Brouillette said the response was overwhelming.
“I stay away from the sorting because it’s overwhelming,” Brouillette said. “I don’t know how they manage to process and deliver all of that stuff — it’s an enormous amount.”
Before the bags even went out to the community, students at the high school held a food drive competition with a goal to collect 2,500 food items to donate, according to Jacob Masenior, a teacher at the high school.
Masenior said Friday morning the school had collected about 900 cans. As the day went on, students brought in more cans and parents stopped in to drop off bags as well. By the end of the day, the high school students had collected around 5,000 food items.
Principal Diana Bonneville said Monday the final amount the students collected wasn’t a shock to her.
“I’m not surprised that they are so generous,” she said.
Bonneville said it was critical for the students to understand the significance of giving back to the community.
“We do have a large percentage of students who are on free and reduced lunch and it’s great to see everybody involved to support each other,” Bonneville said.
Pulling cans and boxes out of bags, Kim Lavoie brought her sons Quinn, 8, and Ellis, 6, to volunteer. She said she was trying to teach them that everyone needs to pitch in for the community.
“This year they were old enough to pitch in,” she said.
The two boys were helping by giving their mother bags of food to unpack. Together, the two explained why they were helping.
“We did it because there are homeless people,” Quinn said.
“And they needed food to have,” Ellis finished.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.